Читать книгу From Monkey to Man, or, Society in the Tertiary Age онлайн

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After several conflicts, in which now one party and then the other was successful, and after several temporary compromises, in which they tried to live together, the Lali, partly vanquished and partly persuaded, consented to withdraw to the lands beyond the Swamp, leaving the Ammi in possession of the Cocoanut Hill region.

The separation, however, was no settlement. The Lali claimed the land which they did not take, and hoped to get in the future what they were willing to surrender for the present. The two parties stood, like Germany and France over Alsace and Lorraine, growling much, but doing little. Occasionally they made incursions into each other’s territory, and carried away some fruit or provisions; but, though they talked chiefly of war, they lived mainly in peace. Separated by snakes and swamps, they were kept at peace by the difficulty of coming together. The danger of crossing, and the delay in going around the Swamp, were too great for war.

This was the condition and situation of the two forces which occupied the world as known to our ancestors at the time of this story.